Letters: National Readerships

On clearing my loft I came across an old newspaper cutting which had amused me when it was published in the late 60s and looking at it again I thought that even today it would amuse Regency readers.

It refers to a dinner at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and somebody who makes an after-dinner speech and quotes a copywriter’s notes on the subject of the then newspaper readership profiles.

“The Times is read by the people who run the country. The Guardian is read by the people who would like to run the country. The Financial Times is read by the people who own the country. The Daily Telegraph is read by the people who remember the country as it used to be. The Daily Express is read by the people who think the country is still like that. The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the men who run the country. The Daily Mirror (which itself once tried to run the country) is read by the people who think they run the country. The Morning Star is read by the people who would like another country to run the country. The Sun – well, Murdoch has found a gap in the market – the oldest gap in the world”!

In reality much of this is still true today, how extraordinary isn’t it – 40 years later?

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